SSH Remote Commands

🚀 SSH for GitHub Actions

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GitHub Action for executing remote ssh commands.

Important: Only support Linux docker container.

Input variables

See action.yml for more detailed information.

host - ssh host
port - ssh port, default is 22
username - ssh username
password - ssh password
passphrase - the passphrase is usually to encrypt the private key
sync - synchronous execution if multiple hosts, default is false
timeout - timeout for ssh to remote host, default is 30s
command_timeout - timeout for ssh command, default is 10m
key - content of ssh private key. ex raw content of ~/.ssh/id_rsa, remember include the BEGIN and END lines
key_path - path of ssh private key
fingerprint - fingerprint SHA256 of the host public key, default is to skip verification
script - execute commands
script_stop - stop script after first failure
envs - pass environment variable to shell script
debug - enable debug mode
use_insecure_cipher - include more ciphers with use_insecure_cipher (see #56)
cipher - the allowed cipher algorithms. If unspecified then a sensible

SSH Proxy Setting:

proxy_host - proxy host
proxy_port - proxy port, default is 22
proxy_username - proxy username
proxy_password - proxy password
proxy_passphrase - the passphrase is usually to encrypt the private key
proxy_timeout - timeout for ssh to proxy host, default is 30s
proxy_key - content of ssh proxy private key.
proxy_key_path - path of ssh proxy private key
proxy_fingerprint - fingerprint SHA256 of the proxy host public key, default is to skip verification
proxy_use_insecure_cipher - include more ciphers with use_insecure_cipher (see #56)
proxy_cipher - the allowed cipher algorithms. If unspecified then a sensible

Usage

Executing remote ssh commands.

name: remote ssh command
on: [push]
jobs:

  build:
    name: Build
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - name: executing remote ssh commands using password
      uses: appleboy/ssh-action@v0.1.9
      with:
        host: ${{ secrets.HOST }}
        username: ${{ secrets.USERNAME }}
        password: ${{ secrets.PASSWORD }}
        port: ${{ secrets.PORT }}
        script: whoami

output:

======CMD======
whoami
======END======
out: ***
==============================================
✅ Successfully executed commands to all host.
==============================================

Setting up a SSH Key

Make sure to follow the below steps while creating SSH Keys and using them. The best practice is create the SSH Keys on local machine not remote machine. Login with username specified in Github Secrets. Generate a RSA Key-Pair:

Generate rsa key

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "your_email@example.com"

Generate ed25519 key

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -a 200 -C "your_email@example.com"

Add newly generated key into Authorized keys. Read more about authorized keys here.

Add rsa key into Authorized keys

cat .ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh b@B 'cat >> .ssh/authorized_keys'

Add ed25519 key into Authorized keys

cat .ssh/id_ed25519.pub | ssh b@B 'cat >> .ssh/authorized_keys'

Copy Private Key content and paste in Github Secrets.

Copy rsa Private key

clip < ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Copy ed25519 Private key

clip < ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

See the detail information about SSH login without password.

A note from one of our readers: Depending on your version of SSH you might also have to do the following changes:

Put the public key in .ssh/authorized_keys2
Change the permissions of .ssh to 700
Change the permissions of .ssh/authorized_keys2 to 640

If you are using OpenSSH

If you are currently using OpenSSH and are getting the following error:

ssh: handshake failed: ssh: unable to authenticate, attempted methods [none publickey]

Make sure that your key algorithm of choice is supported. On Ubuntu 20.04 or later you must explicitly allow the use of the ssh-rsa algorithm. Add the following line to your OpenSSH daemon file (which is either /etc/ssh/sshd_config or a drop-in file under /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/):

CASignatureAlgorithms +ssh-rsa

Alternatively, ed25519 keys are accepted by default in OpenSSH. You could use this instead of rsa if needed:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -a 200 -C "your_email@example.com"

Example

Executing remote ssh commands using password

- name: executing remote ssh commands using password
  uses: appleboy/ssh-action@v0.1.9
  with:
    host: ${{ secrets.HOST }}
    username: ${{ secrets.USERNAME }}
    password: ${{ secrets.PASSWORD }}
    port: ${{ secrets.PORT }}
    script: whoami

Using private key

- name: executing remote ssh commands using ssh key
  uses: appleboy/ssh-action@v0.1.9
  with:
    host: ${{ secrets.HOST }}
    username: ${{ secrets.USERNAME }}
    key: ${{ secrets.KEY }}
    port: ${{ secrets.PORT }}
    script: whoami

Multiple Commands

- name: multiple command
  uses: appleboy/ssh-action@v0.1.9
  with:
    host: ${{ secrets.HOST }}
    username: ${{ secrets.USERNAME }}
    key: ${{ secrets.KEY }}
    port: ${{ secrets.PORT }}
    script: |
      whoami
      ls -al

Multiple Hosts

  - name: multiple host
    uses: appleboy/ssh-action@v0.1.9
    with:
-     host: "foo.com"
+     host: "foo.com,bar.com"
      username: ${{ secrets.USERNAME }}
      key: ${{ secrets.KEY }}
      port: ${{ secrets.PORT }}
      script: |
        whoami
        ls -al

Multiple hosts with different port

  - name: multiple host
    uses: appleboy/ssh-action@v0.1.9
    with:
-     host: "foo.com"
+     host: "foo.com:1234,bar.com:5678"
      username: ${{ secrets.USERNAME }}
      key: ${{ secrets.KEY }}
      script: |
        whoami
        ls -al

Synchronous execution on multiple hosts

  - name: multiple host
    uses: appleboy/ssh-action@v0.1.9
    with:
      host: "foo.com,bar.com"
+     sync: true
      username: ${{ secrets.USERNAME }}
      key: ${{ secrets.KEY }}
      port: ${{ secrets.PORT }}
      script: |
        whoami
        ls -al

Pass environment variable to shell script

  - name: pass environment
    uses: appleboy/ssh-action@v0.1.9
+   env:
+     FOO: "BAR"
+     BAR: "FOO"
+     SHA: ${{ github.sha }}
    with:
      host: ${{ secrets.HOST }}
      username: ${{ secrets.USERNAME }}
      key: ${{ secrets.KEY }}
      port: ${{ secrets.PORT }}
+     envs: FOO,BAR,SHA
      script: |
        echo "I am $FOO"
        echo "I am $BAR"
        echo "sha: $SHA"

Inside env object, you need to pass every environment variable as a string, passing Integer data type or any other may output unexpected results.

Stop script after first failure

ex: missing abc folder

  - name: stop script if command error
    uses: appleboy/ssh-action@v0.1.9
    with:
      host: ${{ secrets.HOST }}
      username: ${{ secrets.USERNAME }}
      key: ${{ secrets.KEY }}
      port: ${{ secrets.PORT }}
+     script_stop: true
      script: |
        mkdir abc/def
        ls -al

output:

======CMD======
mkdir abc/def
ls -al

======END======
2019/11/21 01:16:21 Process exited with status 1
err: mkdir: cannot create directory ‘abc/def’: No such file or directory
##[error]Docker run failed with exit code 1

How to connect remote server using `ProxyCommand`?

+--------+       +----------+      +-----------+
| Laptop | <-->  | Jumphost | <--> | FooServer |
+--------+       +----------+      +-----------+

in your ~/.ssh/config, you will see the following.

Host Jumphost
  HostName Jumphost
  User ubuntu
  Port 22
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/keys/jump_host.pem

Host FooServer
  HostName FooServer
  User ubuntu
  Port 22
  ProxyCommand ssh -q -W %h:%p Jumphost

How to convert to YAML format of GitHubActions

  - name: ssh proxy command
    uses: appleboy/ssh-action@v0.1.9
    with:
      host: ${{ secrets.HOST }}
      username: ${{ secrets.USERNAME }}
      key: ${{ secrets.KEY }}
      port: ${{ secrets.PORT }}
+     proxy_host: ${{ secrets.PROXY_HOST }}
+     proxy_username: ${{ secrets.PROXY_USERNAME }}
+     proxy_key: ${{ secrets.PROXY_KEY }}
+     proxy_port: ${{ secrets.PROXY_PORT }}
      script: |
        mkdir abc/def
        ls -al

Protecting a Private Key

The purpose of the passphrase is usually to encrypt the private key. This makes the key file by itself useless to an attacker. It is not uncommon for files to leak from backups or decommissioned hardware, and hackers commonly exfiltrate files from compromised systems.

  - name: ssh key passphrase
    uses: appleboy/ssh-action@v0.1.9
    with:
      host: ${{ secrets.HOST }}
      username: ${{ secrets.USERNAME }}
      key: ${{ secrets.KEY }}
      port: ${{ secrets.PORT }}
+     passphrase: ${{ secrets.PASSPHRASE }}
      script: |
        whoami
        ls -al

Using host fingerprint verification

Setting up SSH host fingerprint verification can help to prevent Person-in-the-Middle attacks. Before setting this up, run the command below to get your SSH host fingerprint. Remember to replace ed25519 with your appropriate key type (rsa, dsa, etc.) that your server is using and example.com with your host.

In modern OpenSSH releases, the default key types to be fetched are rsa (since version 5.1), ecdsa (since version 6.0), and ed25519 (since version 6.7).

ssh example.com ssh-keygen -l -f /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key.pub | cut -d ' ' -f2

Now you can adjust you config:

  - name: ssh key passphrase
    uses: appleboy/ssh-action@v0.1.9
    with:
      host: ${{ secrets.HOST }}
      username: ${{ secrets.USERNAME }}
      key: ${{ secrets.KEY }}
      port: ${{ secrets.PORT }}
+     fingerprint: ${{ secrets.FINGERPRINT }}
      script: |
        whoami
        ls -al

Contributing

We would love for you to contribute to appleboy/ssh-action, pull requests are welcome!

License

The scripts and documentation in this project are released under the MIT License

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SSH Remote Commands